What a Piggy!
by FanOfRandomThings
Summary: Hugh only wanted a friend, and when a new boy arrived at the school, Hugh thought maybe the new boy could be his friend. What happens when the new boy has other ideas? (This takes place before the island while the boys are still going to school. Just some ideas about Piggy's nickname and reasons for Jack's strong dislike for Piggy.)


(So this takes place before the island while the boys are still going to school. Just some ideas about Piggy's nickname and reasons for Jack's strong dislike for Piggy. I'm calling piggy Hugh because that's what they called him in the original movie)

He was new at the school and since Hugh didn't have any friends, he thought the new boy had potential. Hugh hadn't been at the school very long himself, but in his year and a half nobody had seemed to want to spend time with him. At first he'd hung around one boy named Bill, but Bill had started making up excuses about being busy during lunch and not being able to eat with Hugh. One day Hugh had gone into the library where Bill had claimed he'd be studying, yet he wasn't there. Hugh had eventually trekked back to the lunch room where, to his shock, he'd spotted Bill laughing with some boys Hugh didn't know. Hugh had tried to eat with them, but they excluded him terribly. They whispered and refused to tell him their well-kept secret, so eventually Hugh gave up and began eating on the outskirts of the school under a tree, wishing he had just one friend.

Yet now there was a new boy; maybe he would be Hugh's new friend?

After being introduced in Writing II, the boy was told to sit in the middle of the class. His seat was conveniently next to Hugh's own, yet Hugh didn't talk because he hated interrupting the elderly professor. It seemed an eternity before the bell rang and the students gathered their books to go to lunch. The new boy was glancing about the classroom, most likely in search of a potential lunch buddy, and Hugh cleared his throat loudly.

The boy's head turned slightly to the side and he raised an eyebrow at the portly, bespectacled boy.

"Hello," Hugh spoke, "You're new, I see."

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm new," the boy nodded, shouldering his school bag and glancing out the classroom door.

"That's real neat! Do you have anyone to sit with while you eat lunch?" Hugh asked, and the boy shook his head once.

"Not yet," he shrugged.

Hugh grinned to himself declaring that the boy could always eat lunch with him, and the boy shrugged carelessly.

"I s'pose I could," he agreed, "Shall we get going? I'm Jack Meridew, by the way."

"Hugh," Hugh smiled, and then he lead the boy with the shock of red hair out to his usual tree. Hugh plopped down beneath it, Jack eyeing the grass uneasily.

"Where's the others?" He asked, his eyes traveling the lonely patch of school that was deserted of children.

"Oh, it's only us," Hugh explained, "Why don't you sit down? Do you want a cookie? My auntie made them!"

Jack slowly lowered his school-bag onto the grass and nibbled the cookie Hugh extended to him. From there, Piggy devoured a chicken leg, a pasta dish, several more cookies, a muffin, and some sort of pastry. During all of this, Jack ate only a sandwich, his eyes traveling around the empty field. Part way through his enthusiastic meal, Hugh paused to eye Jack's small portion of food.

"Don't you got more than that?" Hugh asked, but he was met with only a shrug.

"No, I'm not that hungry." Jack replied, going back to silently munching on the sandwich.

Several days were passed like this, and each day Jack seemed to grow more restless, though Piggy ignored this fact on account of his longing for Jack to be his friend. Everything seemed to be going well, until one day Jack wasn't in Writing II.

Hugh didn't know what to make of it, his name wasn't even called out during roll call. At lunch, Jack was back to sitting under the tree and Piggy asked about this absence.

"Oh, I was transferred to the choir because they thought my singing voice was so I good I had to get in!" Jack exclaimed proudly, and Hugh nodded.

"Oh," he said simply.

"Yes, do you have a good singing voice?" Jack asked, but Hugh simply shrugged.

"Don't know, never tried." Hugh went back to chewing on another chicken leg.

"I bet I'm the best singer in the whole school," Jack boasted, "Wanna bet?"

"Me auntie says placing bets is bad," Hugh replied.

"What, so you do everything your auntie tells ya too?"

"Uh hu." Hugh said simply.

Jack snorted and, on an impulse, reached for the chicken leg. He snatched it out of Hugh's hand, and Hugh glared at him indignantly.

"Hey, that's my chicken leg!" Hugh frowned, but Jack only gave a laugh.

"You going to make your auntie come after me?" Jack mocked, but Piggy only sighed, not taking the bate for a fight.

"Oh, you can have it; I'm not that hungry anyway," Hugh shrugged, yet this seemed to cause a further frown to sneak onto Jack's face.

The rest of lunch was spent in silence, Jack staring at the rest of the lunch yard with a pensive look never leaving his face.

The next day Jack was again under the tree, eating silently next to the terribly hungry Hugh, yet today something changed. About half way through lunch, a group of boys was spotted nearing the unlikely friends, if they could be called that.

The boy in the front of the group called, "Hey Meridew!" And Jack's head shot up like a solder's at attention.

"What are you doing way out here? Why don't you and your friend come on and eat with us in the lunch yard? Who is your friend, anyway? Is that Hugh? What are you doing around the likes of him? Do you fancy yourself at stuffy little of Oxford like Specs here?" The boy continued, wrinkling his nose at Hugh.

Jack stood, glancing at Hugh nervously, and he said, "Oh, yeah. That's Hugh, I met him on my first day of school, but I'm not sure we're friends..."

Hugh glanced at Jack, disappointed by this sudden betrayal, and he stood as well, a clump of food dropping from his hand.

"What a pig," Hugh heard one boy whisper, while another snickered quietly.

Jack gave Hugh a second glance before shouldering his school-bag and turning to the new boys.

"I think I will eat with you, if you don't care to much. What's the new song for choir, anyway?" And then Jack was gone leaving Hugh just as friendless as before.

Hugh spent the next day alone under the tree, yet a decision changed his schedule the day after.

The next day Hugh forgot about eating and began devotedly searching the school yard for Jack and the choir boys. At last he found them in the center of cafe, laughing and joking, at least until Hugh arrived.

The moment Hugh stepped up next to Jack, the table went silent. Jack turned to glare at Hugh, and the rest of the table turned to glare at Jack.

"Hi," Hugh smiled, "I was wondering where you were, Jack." Hugh sat down at the table, and someone whispered something to the red headed boy.

"Hey," Jack suddenly spoke gruffly, "Hey now listen. No one invited you here, and this table is only for choir boys. It's only for boys who can sing spectacularly. To sit here, you've got to sing."

"Sing?" Hugh asked.

"Yeah, you want to sing?"

Hugh glanced around at the leering faces, and he gulped before saying, "What do I sing?"

Surprised that he was actually taken up on his idea, Jack glanced at the others. "Well..." He trailed off.

"Sing God Save the Queen, I'm sure you know that one," One boy snickered, and Piggy shrugged.

"I've never sang nothing before..." Piggy trailed off but, to all of the boys' surprise, he began to sing.

He started out quiet, but his voice increased as the song came along, and to everyone's shock, including his own, his voice wasn't half bad.

"In fact," one boy whispered, "He's almost better than Jack."

Hugh's chest puffed with the effort of singing, but as each note came out of his rounded mouth, more people turned to stop and stare. By the end of the song, the whole lunch room was silent, and it suddenly erupted into a loud applause.

The choir boys were suitably impressed and they all gave him a hearty smile of approval, all except Jack. Jack's face was purple with envy, and his lips quivered dangerously, yet people continued to smile at Hugh. Hugh gave several bows, each moving slightly to the left, when suddenly his foot hit something slippery. His legs shot from beneath him, and he landed on his back, his large stomach sticking into the air. His large stomach jiggled a bit, and the whole room was silent at this turn of events.

Jack eyed his new competitor, and a wicked idea came to mind.

"Look how his stomach jiggles like jelly, like a piggy or something. What a Piggy. Why don't you stand up Piggy?" Jack called over to the mortified Hugh, but as Hugh tried to stand, he slipped and found himself again on the floor. A third time had the whole room in hysterics while various boys called out, "Piggy, Piggy!"

Hugh blushed a deep crimson and finally got to his feet, tears brimming at his eyes. He turned to look at the one he'd called friend, but there was little sympathy in Jack's eyes.

Hugh glanced around the room in horror before turning and running out of the room, tears brimming and spilling over onto his cheeks.

As Jack watched the boy run from his shame, a pang of regret pierced his heart, yet seeing all the laughing, admiring faces around him squeezed the regret into almost nothing. Jack did his best to forgot his plump, once friend, but he knew he wouldn't forget the challenge Hugh had posed, nor would he forget that Hugh could succeed at the one thing Jack knew how to do. Hugh was a better singer, but no one would hear his singing voice again, Jack was sure.

And meanwhile, Hugh was back under his tree, now wiping salty tears from his face, yet his name was no longer Hugh, was it? No, it was Piggy.


End file.
